Proud to be Canadian

Editorial

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell will visit Israel next month, meeting with municipal leaders there, as well as seeing the sights of the Holy Land. The mayor of Haifa – a city that shares much with Vancouver including natural beauty, proximity to the ocean, excellent post-secondary institutions and a burgeoning high-tech sector – invited Campbell to come. A sister-city relationship may be on offer, though Campbell says he likes to base such agreements on proven ongoing ties.

Campbell was supposed to attend the World Pride GLBT event in Jerusalem as well, but that celebration has been postponed a year. The postponement of World Pride disappointed Israel's ambassador to Canada and many who had made travel arrangements. But the delay was necessitated by the contending

demands of policing the Gaza pullout and protecting gay pride revellers – which would be needed at the same time and spread the police force too thin.

Despite the disappointment of World Pride's postponement, it is notable that Israel had planned to host such an event in the first place – and still aims to do so a year from now. The gay celebration in the eternal city was controversial, no question about that. But controversy is not discouraged in a democracy. Israelis hold various attitudes on the subject of homosexuality, but gay people are protected by law and celebrations like World Pride are just another of the endless processions of diversity that fill Jerusalem's streets on any given day.

Whatever one's feelings on issues of sexual orientation, World Pride is one example of what makes Israel different from its neighbors. Israel is the only country in the region where homosexuality is legal. Indeed, homosexuality is punishable by death, stoning or, for the lucky, mere imprisonment in other countries of the Middle East. So it is important to note that the delay was motivated primarily by security concerns – not "moral" ones. This concern was apparently justified when, at a gay pride march that did go ahead in Jerusalem, a "religious extremist" attempted to stab three people, according to Israeli Ambassador Alan Baker.

Reports name the extremist as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, but whether he was Jewish, Christian, Muslim or of some other faith, the ambassador seemed to acknowledge that it is extremism – not theology itself – that leads to violence.

This is a distinction we need to acknowledge. Informed believers of goodwill have different opinions about many issues and disagree peacefully. Extremists use violence to enforce their ideas. Extremism enforces orthodoxy through violence or intimidation rather than encouraging a free exchange of ideas and respect for differing opinions. Extremism – not Islam, Judaism, Christianity or any other influence – is to blame for violence, whether on the fringes of a Jerusalem gay pride parade, in London's tube, in Gaza settlements or in a perverted "justice system" where rape is recompense. Religion is used as justification for violence but that does not mean religion justifies violence. As Muslims worldwide are struggling to make the world understand, anyone is free to pervert the teachings of a religion to suit their political ends. This, ironically, is one of the few freedoms even theocratic dictatorships can't seem to extinguish.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Vancouver and a host of other political leaders and hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are expected to participate in this weekend's Pride Parade on the streets of Vancouver's West End. Among the throngs will be a small group representing Jewish agencies, congregations, organizations and individuals. For these Jews, and other gay pride revellers from multicultural communities, participation in this annual bacchanalia remains controversial among segments of their respective cultural communities. Indeed, there may be people on the fringes of the parade who disagree with the concept of "gay pride." But as Canadians, we resolve our differences and find ententes through peaceful disagreement. Jewish, Muslim, Christian, straight, gay, old, young, left, right – Canadians converse peaceably in a world where too many conversations end in violence.

Happy B.C. Day and, this year, celebrate.

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